Why We Must Defend Planned Parenthood

When I went to work as the legislative director for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin in 2003, I was unprepared for the attacks this venerable women’s health-care group experiences on a routine basis. There are organizations solely dedicated to shutting down Planned Parenthood, and more pop up every day. Even before the 2010 Tea Party takeover in state capitols around the country, including ours, the relentless legal and political attacks on Planned Parenthood were unending.

I thought I knew something about courage, but what I learned at Planned Parenthood was that I knew nothing about it. The staff and physicians who walk into a health center every day, who are targeted and harassed while their workplace is sometimes vandalized and threatened, are the heroes. And they do it every day because there are thousands of women in our state who otherwise wouldn’t have access to birth control, cervical and breast cancer screens or testing and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases. Even though abortion is only a tiny piece of the services Planned Parenthood provides, it is a critical service. And there are people who risk their lives every day to provide it.

When I was elected as a state representative, I saw the attempts to shut down Planned Parenthood and abortion access up close and personal. Some legislators in our state capitol are there solely to make abortion, and birth control, illegal. And they will stop at nothing to do so.

Newly proposed state legislation is targeted not only at abortion, but also at birth control. A new bill would lower birth control reimbursement rates for safety net providers serving low-income women to a level that could shut most or all of these health centers down. And though Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and legislative Republicans have already denied any state funding for birth control and cancer detection efforts Planned Parenthood provides (no public monies can be used for abortion services), they now are attempting to deny any federal family planning funds to providers, including Planned Parenthood.

This is a nationally coordinated effort. At the recent annual convention of the American Legislative Exchange Council (“ALEC”), the newest smear campaign against Planned Parenthood was a cause célèbre for Republican presidential candidates. Despite the fact that ALEC purports not to address social issues including abortion, on the other side of the convention wall were the national anti-abortion groups exhibiting their model policies and rubber fetuses. ALEC and the anti-abortion movement have many of the same funding sources and have the same goals —electing Republicans across this country who will turn back the clock for women all over the United States.

Under the ALEC banner of free markets and limited government, Walker touted defunding Planned Parenthood. He failed to mention that the result was the shutting down of five mostly rural health centers that didn’t provide abortions but cervical and breast cancer screens. (New numbers just released last week show that 25 percent fewer women had access to a women’s health center in 2013 than in 2010.)

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, another Republican candidate for President, referred to the legalization of abortion as the prime example of our country’s moral depravity. And fellow candidate, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, the most verbally strident of the three, speaking by video at the conference, touted shutting down Planned Parenthood. Though all three talked about smaller government, that concept apparently doesn’t apply to women’s private medical decisions. When it comes to women’s bodies, they want government as big and intrusive as possible.

But the biggest lesson I have learned about reproductive health issues hasn’t been in the capitol or even working at Planned Parenthood, but as a woman who struggled through six pregnancies, more than half unsuccessfully. I learned that decisions women make about our reproductive health aren’t about death, but about life. Whether we are faced with an unintended pregnancy, or when a wanted pregnancy goes heartbreakingly wrong, we are simply trying to live the life we imagine for ourselves and our families.

And this is where the rightwing is the most out of touch. Anti-abortion activists want to talk about death and fetal tissue and body parts, leaving women out of the discussion on abortion and reproductive health. They ignore the reality of women’s lives, and the dreams that we have for ourselves and the families we may, or may not, someday have.

Republicans like Scott Walker want to stamp out abortion by stamping out Planned Parenthood. But what they really want is to stamp out our ability to make the most personal, private decisions about our lives. They are using the latest campaign to shut down Planned Parenthood to do just that.

We must make sure that doesn’t happen.

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Comments (9)

For the life of me, I cannot

For the life of me, I cannot understand why the left will consistently and vehemently defend the oppressed, the disempowered, and the voiceless when laws deny equality or opportunities to them.... yet consistently and vehemently support the murder of children as a fundamental right. And that generally being for the opinions, comfort, and convenience of the parents who knew full well that their actions could conceive a human life.

Defunding Planned Parenthood is not enough. It's a step in the right direction, but it's not enough.

How exactly do "women's rights" trump "human rights?" I would love to hear a philosophically sound, or even biologically sound argument for that.

Mattmore than 3 years ago

Thank you so much for writing

Thank you so much for writing this. It is so hard to understand why this just goes on & on.

Carol Gehl RNmore than 3 years ago

Defund planned parenthood

Defund planned parenthood until congress can investigate. I am pro choice plus I know tissue in needed for testing, but selling aborted fetuses is just not right. Perhaps a signed consent from the mother to release the tissue for research,.

tracymore than 3 years ago

Rep. Taylor,

Rep. Taylor,
I am not a resident of Wisconsin so I cannot vote for you. But I would like to address the issue of Planned Parenthood and abortion. There are some things that Planned Parenthood does that is acceptable. Abortion and selling baby parts is not one of them. I understand that you have had problems with pregnancies. This is not something that I can identify with.personally. I had three children and had little problems during my pregnancies other than that they were three of them in in 3-1/2 years. However, daughter lost a baby early in a pregnance. My daughter-in-law lost two babies, one being the twin to my grandson. I now have 13 grandchildren. Eight of them are girls. I would never wish the heartache of an abortion on these girls. I know women that have had abortions and have had a great deal of heartache afterwards. I know a young woman that was raped and it resulted in a pregnancy. She made the decision to carry this baby and then give her baby up for adoption to a loving famlly. This is an open adoption and my young friend has visitation rights. She sees her daughter on a regular basis. She loves this child so very much. And she has even made the statement that she would go through the rape again, if that is the only way that she could give birth to this child. What really bothers me about Planned Parenthood is selling these parts of babies without blinking an idea. It seems so cold and heartless and all for money. If Planned Parenthood wants to continue in this business there is little that I can do to stop them. But I don't want to see the tax payer have to fund them. If those that are in favor of Planned Parenthood, abortions, and selling the baby parts are so very interested in continuing this work, let them make donatioons. I for one do not want my money used in this manner. I would rather my tax dollars go to feed hungry children!!

Sincerely,
Thresea Wright
Wentworth, SD

Thresea Wrightmore than 3 years ago

Anyone with a brain supports

Anyone with a brain supports Planned Parenthood. They are truthful and help more women than Republicans realize. Attacking PP usually only brings in donations for PP from their supporters...like myself!

Teemore than 3 years ago

The vast majority are not

The vast majority are not concerned with contraception prior to conception. You noted that abortions are only a very small percent of the services you offer. If that is true, then stop providing abortions and the staff will feel more safe. Instead of indoctrinating the youngest of females into the fold with the callous attitudes that abortion is just a form of birth control, make them accountable for the choices they make. The numbers clearly indicate that the vast number of abortions are being used as birth control. Further, the problem with this organization your are defending is that it aborts babies, adjusts their extraction techniques to ensure the babies organs are in tact, negotiates the price of those *five star* organs, lies to the public about doing it when we've all watched the full length videos, and then has the nerve to try to re-focus at the public by only discussing it's contraception services. Not one comment to date has been made to address the actual footage. Which leads me to believe, none you to actually watch those videos, how could you possibly defend this organization? ≈

JRmore than 3 years ago

How about making "the most

How about making "the most personal, private decisions about our lives" without the mandatory tax subsidies from most Americans who are appalled?

Anonymousmore than 3 years ago

AMEN!

AMEN!

Emilymore than 3 years ago

Rep. Taylor,

Rep. Taylor,

I take issue with your use of the term "heroic" to describe , physicians,nurses, and others who participate in selling the hearts, lungs and other body parts of unborn babies. No rational definition of hero would include someone who markets body parts from dead babies.

Whether Planned Parenthood profits from this practice, using the literally capitalistic definition of profit, is irrelevant. The practice is monstrous and as long as there are buyers abortions in all trimesters will be encouraged. It is morally indefensible, the people who knowingly participate in the buying and selling of the most vulnerable, are sociopathic.

John Spaulding more than 3 years ago

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